Monday, January 30, 2012

This marks the beginning of the final week of Jesus’ life. This entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is cool, amazing and sad. COOL in the way He got the donkey – tells them exactly where to go and exactly what to do. AMAZING in what the crowds do – Shouting “Hosanna” which means “save us.” They may not have totally known who this Jesus was, but they knew He was from God and He could save! SAD in that only a few days later the very people who were crying out “save us” would be the same ones crying out “crucify him.”
So, first thing Jesus does is enters the temple and sees it being abused. Ok……”WWJD”? And, as usual, not what I would have guessed. He was ticked off – a holy ticked off – and He let ‘em know the sin that they were involved in! Then he healed the blind and lame, which brought praise yet ticked off the religious peeps because they wanted the praise!
Jesus then spends the night in Bethany and on his way back to Jerusalem the next morning He sees a fig tree without figs (worthless). He curses it and it immediately shrivels up & dies. Personally I believe this was illustrative of Israel rejecting Jesus (they were unfruitful in spite of all the advantages they were given), but I could be wrong. The disciples watching were amazed and Jesus told them that if they have faith they could do even greater stuff.
Now, please learn something from this next story – questioning Jesus is never good! He caught them because He is ultimate wisdom! Result – He didn’t have to answer their question.
The next parable had to hit the religious peeps like a knife in the heart. He gets them to see that they rejected Him but tax collectors & prostitutes (scum of their time) were accepting Him and being given eternal life! So He added another parable to show that they not only rejected Him but also the OT prophets and they would soon crucify Him! None of this set well with the religious peeps: “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.”SO WHAT?!
*Is your response to Jesus dependant upon circumstances? Things going good – Praise the Lord! Life stinks – What is your problem God?!~! This is how the people of Jesus’ day were responding and yet James warns us “Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.” Lord help us to see You in both the blessings and the trials of life and to praise you for both. When this happens, we’d know it was a supernatural response from your Spirit in us!
*Are you producing fruit? God has chose us to bear fruit for Him (John 15:8,16). When was the last time you encouraged a discouraged friend or helped a widow or shared Jesus with someone? Let’s Bear Fruit TODAY – it’s our calling!